Longhorns show Texas-sized fight, beat No. 10 Oklahoma

Oct. 12, 2013
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Texas running back Johnathan Gray (32) runs with the ball against Oklahoma during the Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl. The unranked Longhorns ran away from the previously unbeaten Sooners. / Matthew Emmons, USA TODAY Sports

by Dan Wolken, USA TODAY Sports

by Dan Wolken, USA TODAY Sports

DALLAS â?? Mack Brown had been doused with water; his hair and white shirt still wet. Moments earlier, he had been down on the field, gathered with his Texas players to sing the "Eyes of Texas" and lift the Golden Hat, a trophy even he would admit he has not won often enough throughout his 16 years in Austin.

But here he was, standing in a quiet hallway at the Cotton Bowl, refusing to do what most of the men in his profession would have following a 36-20 victory against No. 10 Oklahoma.

A two-touchdown underdog, Texas hadn't just won the game but dominated the Sooners in every way possible, arguably one of the greatest and most unexpected performances in Brown's career. Under the circumstances, nobody would have blamed him for firing back at those who have called for his job and speculated about his replacement before the season was halfway through.

But Brown, who has remained one of the game's great gentlemen even as the critics have grown nastier, wasn't interested in handing out told-you-sos or shaking his fists in anger at those who have already buried him.

For one day, anyway, whatever the future holds for Brown came second to the very real possibility that Texas has a chance to win the Big 12 and complete one of the most stunning turnarounds college football has seen in a long time. A month ago, the Longhorns were beaten down, injured and seemingly out of answers. Now they are 3-0 in the Big 12 and striding into the second half of the season with the kind of confidence that can only come from such a thorough destruction of their biggest rivals.

"We got a chance to win the Big 12 and go to the BCS, we really do," Brown said. "We're not in the grave. We're crawling out. We're actually alive and have a chance here. We have to play well each week, but we have a chance and these kids are believing .You can see it."

It's impossible to say how this game, as brilliant as it was for Texas, fits into the script that so many had written for Brown. The athletics director who hired and supported him is still retiring at the end of this year. The university president, who also backs Brown, is still embroiled in a bitter feud with a group of insurgent trustees. And Texas, unless it wins the rest of its games, is still going to fight the perception that it has underachieved the last four seasons since losing the national championship game to Alabama in 2009.

The momentum for change may ultimately be too much to overcome, but perhaps the way this Texas team is viewed can still evolve.

There is no doubt the Longhorns (4-2) were a mess in September, and the ugliness of those losses to BYU and Ole Miss by a combined 40 points can't be erased. Texas was also very fortunate to beat Iowa State on Oct. 3, 31-30, scoring the winning touchdown after an apparent fumble was ruled down by contact.

On the other hand, Texas has steadily improved its defense since Brown decided to fire Manny Diaz as coordinator and bring in Greg Robinson after the BYU debacle. Maybe the change came too late, but what was painted as a panic move played a big role in beating Oklahoma (5-1, 2-1 Big 12) for the first time since 2009. The Sooners, who crushed Texas 63-21 and 55-17 the last two seasons, finished with just 263 total yards Saturday and went 2-of-13 on third down, largely because the Longhorns committed an extra linebacker to stopping the run and put quarterback Blake Bell in a lot of third-and-long situations.

"We were tired of getting run on. We had to stop the run," defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat said. "This game was important. We knew we needed to win. I knew there was a lot of negative outside, and I didn't want to hear it because we were so positive with each other. But we have to keep building. We're not done (getting better) because we beat Oklahoma."

Texas is also healthier now than it was in September. Though starting quarterback David Ash is still out due to a concussion and uncertain to come back, Mike Davis and Daje Johnson â??playmakers the Longhorns counted on this season to make their offense work â?? were hurt against BYU and Ole Miss.

There are never any excuses at Texas, but it's not a coincidence Davis and Johnson had two of the game's biggest plays Saturday, with Johnson returning a punt 85 yards to put Texas in front 29-13 and Davis beating man-to-man coverage for a 38-yard touchdown catch with 10:07 remaining.

The Longhorns also pounded the middle of Oklahoma's defensive front for 255 rushing yards, a plan Brown said he conceived "three years ago" but couldn't pull off against the usually more physical Sooners. Once Texas got a 10-3 lead late in the first quarter on an interception return by defensive tackle Chris Whaley, the Longhorns stayed with the run and made the game easy for McCoy, who is more limited than Ash, but generally avoids big mistakes.

"This team has always known how good it could be, and we're starting to feed off each other," offensive coordinator Major Applewhite said. This is what I was wanting form our offensive line, being able to utilize tempo and get some play action shots to our outside receivers. That's what it's supposed to look like. I think if we get in a situation where we can throw it 22 times and run it 60 we're in great shape."

Texas now has the blueprint for how it needs to play, the confidence to know it can execute against a good team and a real shot to win the Big 12. And if it does, what then? For a coach who was considered all but gone, it might go down as one of the best coaching jobs of his career.

But craving credit is a young man's game, and Brown is no longer a young man. He's 62, and even after one of his best days in a long time, he wasn't going to worry about what it means or what comes next.

"I don't care, I really don't," Brown said. "I couldn't do it 10 years ago, but I'm older (now), and it really doesn't matter. I don't have anything to prove. I'm just trying to win."

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